1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus and a process for forming and filling bags from continuous tubular bag-making material.
2. Prior Art
In the past, bags have been made from continuous tubular bag-making material such as a plastic film or mesh by cutting a piece of such material to a desired length, closing one end of such cut length of material, opening the other end of such cut length of material and supporting such cut length of material to receive product such as produce, for example, onions, potatoes, oranges, apples, garlic and nuts. In some instances the bag-making material has been gathered onto a rigid sheet metal or plastic pipe, the end of the bag-making material tube beyond the end of the pipe has been closed to form a bag bottom and the product to be bagged has been supplied through the rigid pipe into the bag. As the product accumulates in the portion of the bag beyond the rigid pipe, bag-making tubular material gathered on the pipe is pulled off the pipe to form a bag of desired length. The tubular bag-making material is then cut appropriately to leave enough slack for closing the upper end of the bag and the portion of the bag at the side of the cut opposite the filled bag is closed to form the bottom of the next bag to be filled.
Such bag-making and filling procedures require considerable manual labor and are slow.